how would you explain it to him then without giving any specific numbers and confusing him even more?

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I'd say something like:

"In 2D, there are no additional fans running compared to a single card, due to ZeroCore power. So any difference in noise is made by the change in airflow path alone, and probably won't be noticeable.

In 3D, obviously you've got too fans rather than one, and, more significantly, stifled airflow so the top card's fan will have to run faster. Whereas a single 7970 is about as noisy as an X, two 7970s are noticeably noisier- about as noisy as a Y."

You have to fill in the X and Y, I've never worked with these cards or enough other cards to compare them with

Some reviewers also go for DB readings, though these can be misleading as certain types of noise are more noticeable even when they are no noisier (e.g. high pitched).

Don't take any of this as criticism, though. I made my original post just to point that out, not to have a go. I think you consistently make reviews that are amongst the best on the internet.

Two sources of an amount of noise do not make twice that amount of noise.

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So you're saying 2 speakers in stereo isn't louder than 1 speaker in mono? I agree adding a second speaker does not double the level of sound, but 2 speakers from a distance can produce a louder volume at a distance. Example: Take a single speaker or fan and sit it 15 feet away and then take 2 speakers or 2 fans and sit them the exact same feet away and they will be louder than the single speaker or fan. Another example turn on a 40mm fan in a server room.. then turn on a 1u server with say 6 40mm fans and it will sound like a huey taking off.. hehehe Just my 2 cents..

...but 2 speakers from a distance can produce a louder volume at a distance. Example: Take a single speaker or fan and sit it 15 feet away and then take 2 speakers or 2 fans and sit them the exact same feet away and they will be louder than the single speaker or fan. Another example turn on a 40mm fan in a server room.. then turn on a 1u server with say 6 40mm fans and it will sound like a huey taking off.. hehehe Just my 2 cents..

So....according to the summary... adding another 7970 for crossfire only gives it a 24% boost over the single card??

that makes it real hard to justify getting 2 cards.

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There are a few benchmarks that don't do well with crossfire, but mostly it's just crossfire only doubles your GPU computational performance - it doesn't double anything else to do with the GPU (bandwidth, for example) or CPU speed. As you get to higher resolutions, scaling will appear better and better because the bottleneck shifts towards GPU computational performance (right until you run out of VRAM ).

W1zz, I need your personal professional opinon ...would you pefer a single 7970 3GB or a GTX 560 Ti 2Win ..which is Dual GPU however only 1GB GDDR5 per GPU...yes the GTX 560 Ti 2 is faster in most cases, but more and more games are going to be requiring more than 1GB GDDR5..

I am still waiting for the 7950 to come out. I think that crossfired will be the best bang for your buck

You know, I told myself I was going to skip the 7-series a few months ago.

Today, I want three.

Although I see some scaling issues, I see the smae problems on my 6-series cards more often than not, so for an initial showing, I think the results are pretty good.

That said, the numbers are one thing. the actual usability is another.

I am very interested to see if ZeroCore is working With Sandybridge's IGP, with Lucid software switching between devices, as this may provide the ultimate in power savings, yet raw horsepower...IGP gets used @ the desktop, and the 7970 is idle @ 1W...then under load the 7970 kicks in, and you get great gaming performance, too!

Of course, that brings up the question of whether such tech would work with Crossfire as well. For me, that would be ideal, and I'd not need multiple rigs, one for work, with more CPU than GPU, and one for play, with more GPU than CPU. Potentially you can get the best of both worlds here...

Isn't Ivybridge supposed to supprot multiple monitor outputs, too? IvyBridge IGP for 2D, and 7970 Crossfire for Eyefinity, on the same rig? Will that be possible?

W1zz, I need your personal professional opinon ...would you pefer a single 7970 3GB or a GTX 560 Ti 2Win ..which is Dual GPU however only 1GB GDDR5 per GPU...yes the GTX 560 Ti 2 is faster in most cases, but more and more games are going to be requiring more than 1GB GDDR5..

I am still waiting for the 7950 to come out. I think that crossfired will be the best bang for your buck

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if i had something that would serve me for basic gaming i wouldnt buy anything until at least summer

The thing is that these cards are still very new. Scaling will get better by the next set of rivers for sure.... and better and better each time drivers are released. My GTX 580's didn't scale very well in everything either when they first came out but 2 to 3 months into it they sure did. There is still a reason for getting two cards..... and that reason will get even better as time goes on.

nice review w1zz!!! here's hoping that this "zero core" thing actually works as hopped and doesnt just mess up crossfire for these cards. I know with earlier cards amd has had issues getting the power states right at a driver level causing users to have to hack the driver or create certain profiles for gaming.